Of paramount concern recently is that safety conditions in the workplace and at home be even better. In particular, protection from exposure to toxic or otherwise irritating chemicals is considered of utmost importance. Rotary spreaders are commonly used today to apply chemicals, fertilizers and other materials to grassy areas about workplaces and homes. The rotary spreader has become a preferred spreading apparatus due to the wide throw caused by its rotating paddle in the dissemination of the granules and/or other substances about the lawn.
It is also not uncommon to find that operators of these spreading devices are forced, sometimes by law, to wear protective clothing, boots, masks and other shielding equipment to protect against the thrust of these chemicals and/or other materials upon their persons. On hot summer days, protective clothing and rubber boots can be heavy and uncomfortable. Many equipment operators often choose to neglect their safety, preferring to remain cool and unencumbered.
Granules still tend to find their way into cuffs, pockets and other crevices of clothing, even when equipment operators are properly attired and seemingly protected. This situation is the result of the high kinetic energy imparted to the materials by the rotary paddle necessary to obtain the wide throw. This imparted energy causes the granules to spread rearwardly onto a person's clothing.
When workers perspire, the dissolution of trapped chemical granules can then cause irritation and dermatological reactions. Even chemicals which have not yet broken down or disintegrated can find their way into the home and workplace via a worker's clothing, thus posing a safety threat to the health of individuals.
It is observed that merely providing protective clothing is not enough to furnish a safe working environment to users of rotary spreader equipment. The present invention proposes to protect against materials being thrust at an individual at the source of the problem, viz., the rotating paddle.
Heretofore, attachments to spreaders have been relegated to mechanisms that deflect material as it is scattered by the spreader in order to confine the application of such material to a given area of lawn or garden. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,321, issued to BIANCO, discloses a deflecting guard for a broadcast spreader. Three inclined plates are individually adjustable and positioned at right angles to one another in order to prevent dry material from being scattered outside a selected zone of application. Such a deflecting guard is mounted at the front of the spreader and does nothing to protect an individual who is operating the spreader.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,648, issued to GARBER, discloses another spreader attachment. This attachment is for use with a motorized tractor, the rotating paddle being powered by a power shaft from the tractor. A control apparatus is provided to control the discharge of material from the hopper onto the spreader plate or paddle. A shield is provided for preventing the material being spread from traveling rearwardly toward the tractor and operator. This shield plate is bent inwardly and lies in the plane perpendicular to the direction of travel. No structure is provided for wrapping around the spreader plate, even partially. Moreover, removal and cleaning of the shield plate requires disassembly of the entire apparatus with respect to the motorized tractor.
The current invention is for a shielding device that attaches at the rear of a rotary spreader. This shielding device prevents the backward blow of materials in the direction of the operator. In this respect, the shield of this invention eliminates or reduces the normal spread of backward flow onto the operator and his protective clothing and boots.
The shield apparatus of the invention comprises three embodiments: (a) a molded back shield with partial wrap-around housing, (b) a V-shaped back shield; and (c) a rectangular-shaped, wrap-around housing having a protective top plate. None of these embodiments hinders the dissemination or affects the circumferential spread pattern of the spreader because the shield is displaced a sufficient distance from the paddle so as not to inhibit such spread pattern. Notwithstanding this fact, the inventive shield can be used with all appropriate spreaders without inhibiting flow rate or inherent operating controls of the spreader.